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What Success Looks Like In Reality For Chattanooga Businesses

Lots of email responses and activity were prompted by last week’s note on the new 20% deduction for pass-through entities (if you didn’t get it or missed it, shoot me a note by clicking the email button at the top of the page and I’ll forward it along), and we’re knee-deep in the year-end moves that this final month of the year always brings.

I’ll have some generalized thoughts for you on the kind of year-end moves that might make sense for any smart business next week, but in the meantime, here’s a thought:

If your revenues, expenses, structures or results changed in a significant way this year, shoot me an emailthrough that email button at the top of the page. Or give us a call: (423) 648-8272 … we might have some specific tricks up our sleeves that can make a real difference in the next few weeks to add more to your bottom-bottom line.

But I want to change the pace here a little bit this week.

I’ve been coming at you hard with expense-, insurance-, and tax-related thoughts over the past month, so I wanted to take a moment and use this tiny little platform to lift your vision a little, especially this month.

Because I bet your eyes would be opened if you sat with me in my office sometime, and watched the procession of “successful” and “struggling” business owners from Chattanooga meeting with me and my staff over their tax and accounting situations — and watch how their hearts are activated. Sometimes my “most successful” clients can be the most impoverished … and those without many zeroes in their accounts can be flat-out rich.

“Success” is a state-of-mind — and it’s tied to gratitude. It affects how you see sales, savings, retirement, the local marketplace, and investment. And, of course, gratitude is the enemy of fear. It’s like an opposite magnet for it — walk in gratitude, and fear just melts away.

So, here’s my advice for this week: Whatever financial situation you happen to find your business to be in, find a way to be thankful. There are hidden blessings in any trial … and hidden fears lying within any windfall. Find them, savor the blessings, and watch your business (and your mind) thrive.

Don’t believe me? Then I offer you this apocryphal story of doubtful origins [:)] — but which carries deep truth…

What Success Looks Like In Reality For Chattanooga Businesses

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey

A rich farmer liked to ride around his vast estate so he could enjoy his great wealth. One day, while riding his favorite horse, he saw Hans, an old tenant farmer, sitting under a tree.

Annoyed because Hans wasn’t hard at work, he halted his horse and asked, “What are you doing there?”

Hans replied, “I was just thanking God for my meal.” And the farmer saw Hans eating a modest lunch of rice and beans.

“If that was my lunch, I wouldn’t be giving thanks for it,” the farmer said.

“It’s all I have,” said Hans, “but it’s all I need, so I give thanks.”

The farmer was about to ride on when Hans called out to him. “I thought I should tell you that I had a dream this morning. A voice said to me, ‘The richest man in the valley will die tonight.’ I just thought you should know.”

The farmer rode away, but Hans’ words worried him. He was the richest man in the valley, wasn’t he? So he called his doctor when he got back to his mansion. The doctor came out and looked him over, but found nothing wrong with him. The farmer went to bed, still worried, and slept fitfully.

When he woke the next morning he thought, “Well, there was nothing to that dream after all. Here I am, alive and well.”

Then a servant knocked at his door. “What is it?” the farmer asked.

“It’s about that old tenant farmer, Hans, sir,” the servant said.

“What about it?”

“He died in his sleep last night, sir.”

Feel very free to forward this article to a business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way. While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for families and business owners.